IT COULDN’T HAVE been a worse first weekend of pre-season friendlies for the Irish provinces. Ulster lost 21-20 to Exeter at home last night and today it was the turn of the other three to take a beating.
Leinster travelled to Franklin’s Gardens to take on Northampton and found themselves 21-0 down at the half after Tom Stephenson, Kahn Fotuali’i and Luther Burrell scored tries for the home side.
Leinster battled back with tries from Cian Kelleher, Dan Leavy and Mick McGrath but two scores from George North sealed a 33-21 win for the Saints.
Connacht were in High Wycombe to take on Wasps in their first outing and had the best day of any Irish team, only losing by 10 in a 28-18 defeat. They were only 7-6 behind at the break after Ian Porter kicked two penalties either side of an Ashley Johnson try.
Wasps quickly pulled away in the second half after another try by Johnson followed by further scores from James Gaskell and Tom Varndell. Eoin McKeown and Danie Poolman both touched down for Connacht.
Munster had a torrid time against Laurie Fisher’s Gloucester, shipping 45 points in an eventual 37-point loss. It was Anthony Foley’s first game in charge and his side were reasonably competitive in the first half, only going in 10-0 down after Gloucester were awarded a penalty try at the scrum.
However, there was a deluge in the second half, with tries from Billy Twelvetrees, Matt Kvesic (two) and Elliot Stooke (two) giving the Shed Heads a resounding 45-8 win to celebrate. Cian Bohane scored a late consolation try for Munster.
Only challenge matches, nothing to worry about.
A lot of players blooded
Leinster squad 21 caps
Northampton 300+ caps.
Good day at the office really.
Connacht not Connaught.
On the contrary to the report the weekend not possibly being worse and all sides taking a beating, Leinster can take massive encouragement from their loss in Franklins Gardens. It was barely a B&I Cup team Leinster fielded and playing against multiple internationals and even a Lion, were within a score with 2 minutes to go.
Cian Kelleher kicked on from his stunning U20 world cup with a try (massive prospect) and by the sounds of things, Luke McGrath and Cathal Marsh were complete game changers when taking over the halfback pairing in the second half (I have no idea how Boss is considered ahead of McGrath any more…hopefully by start of season Matt O’Connor will come to his senses and have McGrath as back-up to Reddan)
Obviously haven’t seen all the action yet, but from reading a few match reports, Leinster can take a lot of pride in an academy side giving the guts of the Premiership champions first team a real run in their own backyard.
At risk of mixing my metaphors but any fight back when a match is effectively over needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt, it’s all just warm ups anyways.
reddan’s the problem not boss.
He kicks away ball for no reason and chases and then misses the tackle.
It was a damn young team for sure.
A warm up, true Shane, but the tone of the article is a little bit harsh on the efforts. As someone mentioned above, there were 300+international caps in the Northampton squad that played versus 21 caps in the Leinster squad (only 2 capped players – Michael Bent – if he can be considered an international, and Issac Boss, who no longer is good enough for Leinster first team in many Leinster fans eyes).
As for a fight back once the game was over, if not for Northampton bringing on George North at half time, a lion and one of the best wingers in the world, this Leinster academy / B&I Cup reserve team could well have done a number on the Aviva Premiership champions if not for his two tries in the second half.
I understand you’re a Munster fan so want to down play the result of your team, fair enough, but I’ll certainly award the credit due for the result of my team given the circumstances. Onwards and upwards. A few of those players will get a chance in the senior team on the back of that no doubt. Marsh, Leavy and Kelleher could all hope for Pro12 time this season.
I’m not a Munster fan. I’m from Dublin. Look if you want to put a positive spin on a match that was 21-0 at half time off you go. I presume the difference in caps explains the one sided nature of the first half. But any comeback from that score line smacks of a foot having been taken off a peddle of some description, happens all the time, especially in friendlies. I’m sure there were positives but you seem to have blue tinted specs on.
I’m not sure you are aware of how different the teams were.
I know they were, which is why I’m playing down the significance of the result. But the fight back had to be viewed in the context of the match as well.
I was at the Munster game and it was men against boys.
Foley could at least try and put out a team which is competitive!
Complete waste of time.
Maybe more of a mix of some experience and some younger lads would lead to a competitive game where younger players really do get blooded rather than being lambs to the slaughter!
Gloucester were almost full strength and to put out a Munster team like that was a shambles.
Don’t know what was gained?
Foley isn’t allowed play a more competitive team. Anyone involved in the Ireland Summer Tour to Argentina can’t be picked. Anyone involved in the Emerging Ireland Tour to Romania cant be picked. That was a hopeless team because our hand was drastically forced and we faced a Gloucester team armed with Richard Hibbard, John Afoa, Matt Kvesic, Ben Morgan, Greig Laidlaw, James Hook, Billy Twelvetrees and Charlie Sharples. A stupid game but IRFU needs to decide how effective this player welfare is.
Thanks for that Donal.
I wasn’t aware of that.
Seems like a pointless fixture then.
Why schedule a game like that if there as so few front line players available?
Would have been better to play a team in a lower league.
Was Connachts 2nd outing – lost 42-7 away to Clermont 2 weeks ago
Good to see Poolman score – have bet on him to be Connachts Top Try Scorer ha
Same story ever year really, English and French sides play their frontline players in pre-season games to improve their fitness while the Irish roll out their B&I cup sides thanks to the player welfare protocol.
Gloucester had virtually a full strength team. Munster sent a bunch of kids. These pre season friendlies can’t be taken seriously.
There is no point in waiting till your team is in the middle of an injury crisis mid season to try and blood players. This is exactly the right time to do it. These young lads from each province will be the better of having the best the premiership has to offer barreling down on them. How many International friendlies did we see pass by the gate until Declan Kidney decided to debut Paddy Jackson in a nightmare situation. MOC, Foley, Lamb, Kiss are showing faith in their Academy systems. Win, loose or draw these are all professional athletes and would relish the opportunity to mix it up with the likes of George North etc.
Why no comment on Ulster match on Friday night.
Exactly how many Internationals are thus considered, friendlies, by the IRFU? Autumn Internationals? Six Nations? Summer Internationals?
In fairness to Kidney, he capped many new Internationals during his tenure. His job was to produce results. Not game time for Provincial second teamers.